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A renewed focus on natural history programming has led WildBear Entertainment to appoint wildlife biologist and writer, producer and director Dr Chadden Hunter as an executive producer.

Hunter has previously worked for the BBC as a producer, director and writer on Seven Worlds, One Planet, and Planet Earth 2, as a series producer on Wild Arabia, and as a principal director on Frozen Planet.

His credits also include National Geographic programs Hunter & Hunted and Cliffhangers, both of which he presented.

Overall, his projects have won 12 Emmy Awards and eight BAFTAs.

In his new role, Hunter will be working with the Wildbear team to deepen its slate of natural history content and films, secure new commissions, and run productions.

He said he was excited to start the next chapter of his career with the company.

“I’ve been a fan of [WildBear’s] work for years and it’s great to be back on home turf in Australia,...

For BBC wildlife producer and director Chadden Hunter, there is a scene in Seven Worlds, One Planet that sums up the show’s mission. The sequence centers on manatees gliding around hot springs in Florida’s crystal blue waters, but its dreamy quality ends with a wake-up call, as drone footage pulls out from the ocean to reveal a shocking reality.

“It was quite a powerful way of giving the magic and beauty that these series usually have, but giving it that extra edge and contemporary resonance,” Hunter said of the scene, which features in the North America episode of Seven Worlds, One Planet premiering Saturday on BBC America.

Hunter said it underlines a new way of working for the famous Natural History Unit at BBC Studios. Gone are the days when wildlife producers can ignore the harm that is being done to the planet. Instead, issues including the climate crisis,...

In March, Discovery debuted Frozen Planet, a breathtaking polar exploration series from the makers of Planet Earth and Life. During four years of production, the temperatures went as low as -58°F and the winds as high as 148 miles per hour. In total, the crew spent 2,356 days in the field, 840 hours trapped in blizzards, and 134 hours filming under the ice to capture jaw-dropping footage like the killer whale “wave wash” behavior in which orcas swim in a line to make waves that knock a seal off an ice floe, and a pack of 25 patient wolves working together to separate a bison from its herd.

This Sunday, Discovery premieres what could be the most fascinating hour of its seven-part polar exploration series Frozen Planet — the making-of. We already talked with series producer Vanessa Berlowitz and director Chadden Hunter about how this installment is for them — especially in the case of revisiting the solo bison-wolf battle captured in last week’s “Winter” episode – a therapy session. (“We wanted to basically take the viewer’s hand and say, ‘Okay, this was emotional to watch, but we go through the same emotions when we film it,’” Hunter said.) Now, we probe deeper into what life was like for...

This Sunday, Discovery debuts the new seven-part series Frozen Planet, from the makers of Planet Earth and Life. During four years of production, the temperatures went as low as -58°F and the winds as high as 148 miles per hour. In total, the crew spent 2,356 days in the field, 840 hours trapped in blizzards, and 134 hours filming under the ice. Among the jaw-dropping footage seen in the first two programs premiering Sunday: the killer whale “wave wash” behavior in which orcas swim in a line to make waves that knock a seal off an ice floe, and a pack of 25 patient...